What is “Lazy Keto”? Is That What I’m Doing?

Basically, some people have started calling low carb "lazy keto". Lazy keto is a flexible trend that allows for a few more carbs…but how do we know it works as well as keto?

Melissa McAllister has already written a blog on the benefits of keto versus the M.A.D.E. diet and concluded that the MADE diet (especially alongside intermittent fasting), gives you the same benefits as keto…without the keto flu.

But I've had some people ask,“Ketosis is a really healthy state to be in…so if you're not in that, how do you know that health benefits of YOUR diet are just as good?" That's the question I'm here to answer today!

What is Ketosis?

Basically, being in a state of ketosis means that instead of your body running on the glucose from carbs, it's running on ketones from fat. What are ketones? Basically, they are acids that are just the "usable energy source" version of fat.

Now, my M.A.D.E diet is also all about burning fat instead of carbs as your energy source. The difference, to me (eating about 75 to 150 grams of carbs a day, instead of keeping it under 30 to be in full ketosis), is actually not that much in terms of health benefits. Devotees of keto will tell you that eating even one gram over the limit will knock you out of the ketogenic state completely and that you'll lose all the health benefits of being low carb / burning fat.

I think that's just silly! Here's why…

Is Keto Really Better?

Ketosis just means "a fat-burning state where you use fat as your main energy source, and your body produces a certain level of ketones." The thing is, there isn't a hard boundary on being in ketosis or not, the way people think there is. On a low-carb diet, you'll be in a mild state of ketosis between your meals, while your body is getting rid of the few carbs you did eat…and then when you sleep, work out hard, or intermittent fast, your body will burn the rest of the carbs and be in ketosis!

That means, with the so-called "lazy keto," you'll be getting the exact same benefits as you would from the keto diet, like preventing or treating diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

So that's why I feel so bad when I see somebody trying to go crazy with keto, like trying to get their net carbs down to zero!! That would mean you couldn't even eat vegetables and would have to be a complete carnivore.

There are people who eat a carnivore diet and don't consume any vegetables at all and claim that it's treated diseases they have such as autoimmune diseases. Of course, the long-term effects of a diet like this would be terrible, but the short-term effects would be better than being on a high carb diet!! In fact, the subject of a carnivore diet and its effects really interests me.

I might write a blog article about that sometime. That might be a really interesting topic!